BySukant Deepak

March 14, 2022 (IANSlife) Sahitya Akademi has published a book-length poem 'Monsoon' by Indian poet-diplomat Abhay K. on the occasion of its 68th anniversary.

'Monsoon' is a poem of 150 stanzas of 4 lines each (quatrain/ruba'i ) that commences its journey in Madagascar and follows the path of the monsoon invoking the rich flora and fauna, languages, cuisine, music, monuments, landscapes, traditions, myths and legends of the places through which monsoon travels and acts as a messenger to carry the poet's message from Madagascar to his beloved in Srinagar in the Himalayas.

Monsoon originates in Mascarene High near Madagascar in April and journeys across the Indian Ocean and the Indian subcontinent to reach the high Himalayas in June every year before retreating again to Madagascar after September.

The poem introduces the reader to the splendour of the islands of Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles, Mayotte, Comoros, Zanzibar, Socotra, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Andaman & Nicobar and the Western Ghats, Aravalis, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Sundarbans, West Bengal, Bihar, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir Valley, their flora and fauna, cuisine, festivals and monuments as monsoon travels through these places. It weaves the Indian Ocean islands and the Indian subcontinent into one poetic thread.

Dr. Katherine Schofield, co-editor of Monsoon Feelings and senior lecturer at King's College London writes -- "Abhay K.'s Monsoon is an extraordinarily lush work, full of multi-sensory textures of the monsoon as it leaps across the Indian Ocean."

Abhay K. says - "Translating Kalidasa's poems 'Meghaduta' and 'Ritusamhara' inspired me to write Monsoon which seemed a perfect messenger to me carrying my message from Madagascar to Srinagar."

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Sukant Deepak can be contacted at sukant.d@ians.in